With every release, London trio Dark Sky have slowly developed from a clunky, bloated midtempo sound (see their debut Black Acre release) to something sharpened like a deadly weapon—even if it isn't always a distinctive-looking one. Their debut for 50 Weapons sees the group at their most lithe and sleek, building on (or stripping down) the template for 2010's "Leave." The trio still sounds like they're taking pages from others, though, with the intensely layered toms of "Be Myself" owing something to Pearson Sound and "The Lick" fitting nicely into post-whatever narratives with its brittle but snappy bounce.
The other two tracks are more impressive, and certainly more substantive—"Speeding Blue" takes the swooning and ballooning melodies of "Leave" and slaps them on to a more slippery, stabby backbone, while "Neon" plays with the same kind of unabashedly classic garage and house sounds causing Mosca's "Bax" to burn up the UK scene. "Neon" is no mere facsimile, however: Its fusion of crystal blue arpeggios (think Final Fantasy's inimitable "Prelude") and retro chord sounds proves one of the most danceable and innovative takes on the past from a sector that so often claims genius through mere recycling.
Buy Dark Sky - Radius at
  
Tracklist: Dark Sky - Radius
 A1 Speeding Blue
A2 Neon
B1 The Lick
B2 Be Myself
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